page_title: USS Fitzgerald
section_title: Operational history
hierarchical_section_title: USS Fitzgerald / Operational history
caption_attribution_description: PACIFIC OCEAN (Oct. 25, 2012) The guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald (DDG 62) launches a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) as apart of a joint ballistic missile defense exercise. America’s Sailors are Warfighters, a fast and flexible force deployed worldwide. Join the conversation on social media using #warfighting. (U.S. Navy photo/Released) 121025-N-ZZ999-201 Join the conversation www.facebook.com/USNavy www.twitter.com/USNavy navylive.dodlive.mil
context_page_description: USS Fitzgerald, named for United States Navy officer Lieutenant William Charles Fitzgerald, is an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer in the US Navy.
  In the early morning hours of 17 June 2017, the ship was involved in a collision with the container ship MV ACX Crystal, seriously damaging the destroyer. Seven of her crew were killed. Several others were injured, including her commanding officer, Commander Bryce Benson.
context_section_description: In early April 2004, Navy officials announced plans to deploy Fitzgerald, 14 other destroyers, and three cruisers to counter ballistic missile threats worldwide. The next month, she took part in a personnel exchange known as "Super Swap", taking aboard 141 sailors from the destroyer O'Brien and transferring 95 to join the soon-to-be-decommissioned ship's decommissioning unit. Fitzgerald sailed to Yokosuka Naval Base in Yokosuka, Japan, arriving on 30 September 2004, and joining the U.S. 7th Fleet's Destroyer Squadron 15.
  In March 2011, in company with the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, Fitzgerald was deployed off northeastern Honshu, Japan, to assist with relief efforts after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
  On 16 November 2011, while docked in Manila, Philippines, Fitzgerald hosted US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario to sign the Manila Declaration, which called for multilateral talks to resolve maritime disputes and to mark the 60th anniversary of the American–Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty.
  On 1 June 2017, Fitzgerald, operating out of Yokosuka Naval Base, was noted for participating in routine exercises with Japan that were described in the media as a show of force to North Korea. She sailed with the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan, the cruiser Shiloh, and the destroyers Barry, McCampbell, and Mustin, joined by the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, cruiser Lake Champlain, and destroyers Wayne E. Meyer and Michael Murphy, and Japanese ships Hyūga and Ashigara.
caption: USS Fitzgerald fires a missile.
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